Hi All,
I’m building a marine aquarium using Reef-Pi as controller + his Home Assistant Integration.
I’m now looking for an UPS to power my aquarium and I want to monitor it with NUT and HA.
I’m currently testing a Riello iDialog IDG1200 and it doesn’t expose so much data, so I’m looking for a 1200/1500VA UPS which will work very well with NUT. Do you have any recommended model for me?
Thank you!
Simone
I use APC. If you go to their website you can enter your power details etc and they will tell you the best model for your needs.
Thank you, do you have any experience with NUT interface and APC? I was looking for a APC Back-UPS Pro 1500 to have plenty of hour of coverage… but I don’t know if it’ll work well with NUT…
NUT worked fine when I used it. I have it plugged into my computer instead now though.
Generally when you calculate the power requirements and buy a UPS to get X hours of power, in the real world you will get x/2 hours. When the UPS manufacturer makes their calculations, they are dealing with perfect, hours old batteries, perfect temperature and humidity, and a perfect test load. Your purchased unit will have none of those factors. Plus the battery capacity degrades over time. So plan on x/2 hours and you won’t be disappointed right out of the box.
I think that if you intend to use UPS for longer period then “just minutes” then you’ll have to get external batteries. GEL type is, of course, the best, but since they are very expensive and you need more of them i just use normal car batteries, they last at least 5-6 years (from past experience) and they are cheap (comparing…). I use UPS for my 3D printer and for my central heating pellets stove. With 4 pcs. of 60Ah car batteries (my ups require 48V) i can drive my stove for over 10 hours (calculated, not that i needed that long yet).
It’s a good idea, though, to have some kind of monitor of batteries state - i use esphome module with external AD chip for that. I also have NUT installed on RPi Zero and it works well in HA. My ups is “Borri galileo t ups 2000VA” model.
Thank you for your feedback. Yes I am buying a larger UPS to increase the load time in case of a power outage. I’m also planning to use NUT with HA to put the aquarium controller into a “low power state” in which I keep ON only part of the equipment.
I’ve also seen some kit to build LiOn battery into a common 12V 7Ah housing. do these batteries work fine in UPS?
Thank you!
P.S. I’m now looking at a CyberPower CP1300EPFCLCD or Tecnoware EXA PLUS 1500
Max power comsuption of the aquarium is around 300/350W (with all the pumps at max speed, lights at full% and heater on, so this is the max rating power)
With both ups I think I’ll have a good amount of time in case of a power outage…
I think that 12V lithium batteries will work, since charging in UPS is slow anyway and charging principle is pretty similar.
But, do some math: if aquarium consumption is 300W: when running on 12V that means 300 /12=25A of current from battery. Add some losses and you get around 30A. Running on 7Ah battey will give you minutes of running. For 1 hour running you need (in theory) at least 12V 30Ah battery. Of course in practice this time will be quite shorter, because no battery can deliver 30A up to end of it’s charge.
It’s always better to buy an UPS( but more expensive, sadly), which runs on 24 (or even higher) voltage —> higher voltage —> lower current —> longer run on batteries with same Ah number (lower current causes more run time, since battery voltage doesn’t drop so fast).
Thank you, both these UPS works with 24V battery (2x12V 7Ah in series).
300W is the absolute maximum power comsuption of the aquarium. When a blackout occurs I can turn off the lights, leave on only the circulation pump (at a lower speed). So I think I can cut the power by 50% or maybe more (I have to do some test.
Assuming 150W of load to the UPS with standard 2x12V 7Ah batteries I can have nearly 1h of running (in theory).
Using LiOn batteries I can build 2 battiers with more capacity (using high quality cells) so I can increase the perfomance of the ups…
Since I have it in my living room I can’t use a car battery 
What do you think about that?